The military-industrial complex, or where your money goes

Does this surprise you? Where is our discretionary money going? See for yourself.

No wonder we are in so many wars.

It used to be that Communists were our most serious threat and our government spent a fortune defending us (using highly paid defense contractors) from the evils of the Soviet Union and Communist China. When that ruse petered out, and now we’re best friends with Communist China that makes all of the stuff we buy at Wal-Mart and then lends us money to feed our spending habit, we needed to find another enemy. We did. It’s known as terrorism.

At least Washington has finally figured out that although we can “defeat” the Communist hordes, we can never defeat terrorism. Why? Because it’s an idea and a belief system bent on tearing down society, and dare I say it… a nuisance. Blasphemy!

When I grew up in London, England the IRA were exploding car bombs there in an effort to obtain independence for Northern Ireland, a part of Great Britain. Did it stop the British public from continuing to do its daily business? No. Did even daily bombing during the Second World War stop the British public? No.

So why is our government spending trillions of dollars to shadow box with the “terrorists?” It’s because the defense contractors need to be fed. If you keep the gullible American public frightened, then you can keep spending and stay in power. That’s what the game is about. They know that the battle will never be “won.” But that’s not the point.

I remember flying from L.A. to Atlanta about five years ago and passed through the almost worthless TSA checkpoint. Rather than go to the gate with my wife and wait to board the plane, I stopped and looked carefully at the TSA process. In a few seconds I saw huge security holes in the system, such as soldiers in uniform not having to take off their boots when passing TSA inspection. So all you had to do was to buy a uniform as the Army-Navy surplus store and get on an airplane while wearing it to avoid the shoes problem.

When I told the TSA supervisor what I had seen, I was almost arrested, my ID recorded and am probably on a security list! Sad to say, this is the illusion of the TSA. On the other hand it does employ a lot of people, many of whom would otherwise be at Wal-Mart selling those Communist Chinese goods.

This is what President Eisenhower warned us about this in 1961. It has come to pass.